Responding to the Curriculum and Assessment Review

In our observations, the opportunities for pupils at all phases of education to develop creative skills and access creative subjects are both very limited and extremely unequal. There has been a gradual but persistent erosion of creative and cultural opportunities in schools over the last 14 years. This has been well researched, evidenced and documented and the strength of this evidence makes this an unarguable fact.

The most recent and comprehensive evidence collected by the Cultural Learning Alliance (whose work we both practically and pedagogically support) is found in their 2024 Report Card.

Examples:

"There are schools which no longer offer some Arts subjects at all at GCSE level: 42% of schools no longer enter any pupils for Music GCSE; 41% of schools no longer enter any pupils for Drama GCSE; and 84% enter no pupils for Dance GCSE."

"Between 2010/11 and 2022/23, the vacancy rate for Art & Design teachers has more than tripled; the rate for Music has increased by a multiple of six, and Drama has increased by a multiple of five. Teacher recruitment in Music has fallen by 56%."

We will not repeat at length the contents of this report, as we imagine it is already well known to the panel, and hope is has contributed to raising the alarm and turning the direction of travel towards reinstating arts and culture in the curriculum.

The erosion of creative subjects in the curriculum is compounded by a lack of access to arts and culture beyond the curriculum too. Research conducted by The Sutton Trust in 2023 evidenced the reduction in school trips and visits, a large proportion of which would have previously been cultural:

"Senior leaders in schools with the most disadvantaged intakes were the most likely to report having to cut back on trips and outings, at 68% in the fifth of schools with the highest proportion of students eligible for free school meals, compared to 44% in the fifth of schools with the least eligible pupils."

Both sets of evidence highlight that the impacts of the above, plus the lack of access through school enrichment opportunities (also well documented in the CLA Report Card) are all exacerbated for the most socio-economically deprived children and schools. We recognise that the scope of the CAR is limited to core curriculum. However, we firmly believe school trips and visits are an important part of a full education that should be protected as part of the curriculum. Plus, we think it important to acknowledge the domino-effect implications of a downward trend. It has created a situation where access to creative skills and arts subjects is currently the most limited and the most unequal it has ever been since Curious Minds was founded in 2009.

We are encouraged by the widespread recognition that urgent action is needed. We believe that not only is there a route back from this position, but that many of the answers have already been tried and tested.

We believe government education policy since 2010 is directly responsible for the decline of arts and culture in schools. In our extensive work with teachers and school leaders throughout this time, we have repeatedly witnessed that those at the 'coal face' mostly continue to believe in the transformative power of the arts, and in their positive impact on students. This is despite not being able to prioritise it in the current environment. Many schools and teachers have fought very hard to continue their arts provision, despite feeling that they were swimming against the tide. As the numerous challenges facing schools have compounded in recent years, fewer and fewer schools have been able to continue satisfactory arts provision. In our observation, though, this is a reflection of policy and pressure, not of loss of belief in the value of creative and cultural education.

The hierarchy of subjects imposed by the introduction of the EBacc has perhaps done the most extensive damage to creative opportunities for pupils. Before that, the emphasis on STEM subjects was extremely unhelpful, resulting in numerous unsuccessful campaigns to put the A into STEAM.

Pre-dating even this, subsuming arts-based subjects within other subjects (for example, Dance within PE and Drama within English) communicated that the arts only have value within the context of 'more important' subjects. Having no obligation to measure the amount of arts and creative activities that pupils receive exacerbates government messaging in the last decade that they are not important. We all know that in schools, what gets counted, counts.

In addition to policy, and the withdrawal of key programmes such as as 'Find Your Talent' and 'Creative Partnerships', there have been numerous, not particularly subtle, messages from government that creative subjects are of less value and that creative careers are not viable (despite DCMS workforce data showing this is not the case). A very overt example of this was the government advert that suggested a ballet dancer should retrain in cyber security, which attracted widespread criticism, to the extent that it was withdrawn.

Whilst not a stated policy or directive, the impact of this message from government cannot be underestimated. It is one of many that have demonstrated that the arts were of less value, inevitably leading to their erosion in schools.

The Arts in Schools report confirmed Curious Minds' direct observation that, currently, it takes a 'brave' school leader to prioritise the arts. In practice, we have seen this translate into schools where leaders who employ this bravery become 'super-served' by grasping multiple cultural sector offers, whilst children in schools where arts aren't prioritised can miss out entirely. This means that government investment in publicly funded art for schools and children is not consistently reaching the children it is intended for, exacerbating the inequality of provision. We often witness arts organisations repeatedly trying to reach those schools who rarely engage with them by offering good quality, and often free opportunities, but failing to do so. Children in independent schools generally continue to have access to arts and culture, often both in and out of school. Combined, this creates a hugely unequal picture and, at this point in time, where you start in life may entirely dictate whether you can reap the numerous benefits of arts and culture to increasing your life chances and engagement in civic life.

Addressing the negative impact of the policies and processes outlined above is an obvious first suggestion to reverse the current position. We are excited and hopeful as we wait to see what decisions will be made. However, in considering how to do this, we strongly urge the Labour government to think carefully about what support schools and teachers will need to make effective practical changes happen on the ground.

Curious Minds' close relationships with the education sector, built over the last decade, show us that even enthusiastic teachers and school leaders - who will be needed to bring about sustainable change - are not well positioned to do so without substantial support and professional development. There are fewer arts teachers, and fewer teachers with arts leadership responsibilities, than there were. The natural supply chain of new teachers has been interrupted by a decade of under-valuing the arts in education. Those who remain have had fewer development opportunities than they need or want to be effective in their schools.

Teachers undertaking Curious Minds' 'Leading The Arts In Your School' CPD programme describe having previously had no community of practice, no opportunity to witness the work of other schools, and no active partnerships with local arts organisations. Nominated Arts Leaders, (who are increasingly rare) are siloed; secondary arts leaders have repeatedly told us that they have not even witnessed the practice of other arts departments in their own schools due to time pressures. Our 'Curious Citizens' programme (which empowers youth leaders to organise cultural trips and visits for peers), revealed that several of the arts teachers themselves had NEVER taken students on a cultural visit before. Until recent years this would have been unthinkable.

There are teachers in classrooms today who have conducted the latter part of their own education and the entirety of their teacher training in an atmosphere which has been hostile to the arts. They will need much more than a mandate. From our extensive experience and expertise in designing solutions exactly for this purpose, we urgently suggest that key actions beyond education policy and curriculum changes will need to include the provision of:

• Excellent quality CPD and supported development of arts leaders within schools
• The co-ordinated input of professional teaching artists and arts organisations
• Effective brokerage between the two
• Increased arts focused enrichment opportunities offered by schools

Whilst we enthusiastically welcome the potential for greater emphasis on arts, culture and creativity in schools, we would urge the Government to think carefully about what it will take to reverse the position we are currently in.

We believe the engagement of Professional Teaching Artists in classrooms, as part of provision, can offer workable solutions by creating CPD opportunities for teachers at the same time as quality activities for students.

In our extensive experience of working with arts-committed schools and teachers, we most often find ourselves supporting them to discern and deliver quality in this field. Curious Minds' Curious Citizens programme provided evidence that poor quality experiences with arts and culture at a young age can do damage that is permanent and pervasive to an individual's relationship with culture. We have witnessed that teenagers in particular can decide that they 'don't like drama' because of one poorly delivered lesson by a non-specialist; closing off an entire art form that they are unlikely to engage with willingly again.

For this reason, we strongly believe that the highest quality arts and cultural experiences must be afforded to those students least likely to encounter them elsewhere. Sadly the reverse is often the case, with the poorest children having to make do with non-specialist experiences that can do more damage than good. It is commonplace for dance to be taught by a PE teacher with no dance experience, for example. For this reason, most of our own projects with schools include sessions about what quality in arts and culture looks like, and how to commission work with professional artists or arts organisations to get the best outcomes.

Another unfortunate impact of the erosion of arts in schools over the last decade, and the cost of living crisis, has been knowledge/skills loss as arts organisations have struggled to retain specialist schools engagement staff. We know that there is an army of skilled Teaching Artists waiting in the wings to re-ignite arts and culture in schools. However, many of these artists are freelance and, with school-based work being increasingly precarious, have found it difficult to maintain a living and even more difficult to keep skills and knowledge up to date. Arts practitioners will also need support to grapple with the new priorities of schools and teachers in a changing environment.

Curious Minds and Goldsmiths, University of London are currently embarking on a co-supervised PhD, which will research the unique contribution made by Teaching Artists in classroom settings. The literature review which has launched this project has numerous examples of evidence that link external Teaching Artists specifically to improved academic attainment and achievement, improvements in classroom behaviour and more.

We believe that a vital component of creating the kind of sustainable sea-change required is the role of the specialist broker; an organisation with a foot firmly in the worlds of both education and culture, able to simultaneously support and develop both. This was recognised strongly in the independent evaluation conducted when Arts Council England's Bridge Network was concluded in 2023.

It noted that "For the first time in over 40 years, cultural learning will have no form of infrastructural support that explicitly recognises the need for linkage between the cultural and education sectors. // One of the key differences Bridges made in this space was to help educators and artists understand their respective talents and affordances, and how to get the best from each through partnership-working. // [Without them] There is a greater risk of patchier provision and variable coverage for young people as well as less consistent quality of delivery."

This distinct territory is in the DNA of Curious Minds.